Aaaaahhhh So Annoyed! Facebook Ads?

Julie2011

Afternoon!

So annoyed need to vent my anger!

I know there have been discussions on this forum before about what advertising is useful and what is not.... however I had a phone call from a company selling Facebook Advertising, it sounded brilliant! (didnt realise you can do it yourself very cheaply!) So I went with it as I knocked them down to half price at £100 for one months advertising. However after several weeks I have never seen my Ad on facebook and I have looked 100's of times! I contacted the company who have told me my ad has shown 34526 times over 17 days, being of the accountancy sort I did a quick bit of maths and this equates to 85 times a minute, but it appears never the minutes I am on facebook! I asked them to send me proof the ad was running and they sent me a copy of my ad! I have asked for a refund as I am not happy, and they refuse, I have tried to contact facebook, but unfortunately they are not very easy to contact!

Wanted to say beware if this was something you were thinking of as you can do it yourself, and also what can I do next re this company without getting myself into trouble, they have taken my money and given me no proof they have done what they say.......

Thanks for listening!
Julie

MarkT

Julie2011 wrote: »

Afternoon!

So annoyed need to vent my anger!

I know there have been discussions on this forum before about what advertising is useful and what is not.... however I had a phone call from a company selling Facebook Advertising, it sounded brilliant! (didnt realise you can do it yourself very cheaply!) So I went with it as I knocked them down to half price at £100 for one months advertising. However after several weeks I have never seen my Ad on facebook and I have looked 100's of times! I contacted the company who have told me my ad has shown 34526 times over 17 days, being of the accountancy sort I did a quick bit of maths and this equates to 85 times a minute, but it appears never the minutes I am on facebook! I asked them to send me proof the ad was running and they sent me a copy of my ad! I have asked for a refund as I am not happy, and they refuse, I have tried to contact facebook, but unfortunately they are not very easy to contact!

Wanted to say beware if this was something you were thinking of as you can do it yourself, and also what can I do next re this company without getting myself into trouble, they have taken my money and given me no proof they have done what they say.......

Thanks for listening!
Julie

Sometimes it is a case of buyer beware - however, one thing I had in mind when I read this is, are you what you would consider 'target audience'

As you found out yourself, you can make the adverts online using facebook, but you may or may not have seen the parts where you can narrow your target audience down to the people who are more than likely to want to visit your site and buy.

For example, if you sold wedding dresses in Liverpool, you could target women that had a status of 'engaged' in the Liverpool area - just a thought

However at 85 hits per minute, I'd be inclined to ask them for their demographics as to who they've targeted - it does sound a little off

Julie2011

Hi

Thanks for your reply, I do fit the exact demographic of my ad, the company who ran it for me told me I would see it!
But I havent....and neither has anyone I have asked and I also asked them to keep an eye out for it! But nothing has appeared, the most annoying part is I am left taking this unknown companies word for it!
Julie

MarkT

Ah, then if this is the case, I do believe that you are inclined to ask for your money back. Targeted ad campaigns on FB is one of their (FB) main earners.

Hope that you get some if not all of the money back

clegganator

The ad being shown 85 times a minute is quite possible I would of thought. Anyone who works for the big accounting firms, has studied AAT/ACCA, works in accounts or as an accountant, anyone who puts statuses revolving around accountancy and lives in your area etc. Then think about how many times you change page on Facebook. When I have a good stalking session it can easily be 10 pages a minute.

That said I'm always weary about online advertising. BT had a subsidiary that did some and it was dreadful!

deanshepherd

A colleague of mine had the same problem with one of those "I can make you number one on google" SEO charmers. I hope you paid for it via Visa in which case contact them to request a charge back. Getting refunds from these fools is nigh on impossible.

Visa will want the full details and any evidence you have that they did not meet the terms of their contract. CHECK THOSE TERMS CAREFULLY. They may have promised you your ad will be permanently visible but the small print probably states much less.

I would also suggest trying to make your ad appear every hour on the hour for the next week (or longer) and do a screen print so that when Visa (or whoever) wants to see some evidence you have a big pile of proof.

Good luck!

deanshepherd

Just to add..

After some success with google adwords I ran a similar campaign on Facebook for a while and got absolutely no interest. I do not think you can therefore expect anywhere near the same kind of return, which is a shame because the type of demographics you can drill down into can make your adverts really, really targeted. I guess people are just not in the buying frame of mind when using Facebook as they are when using google.

Perhaps other people have different experiences?

Julie2011

Thanks for all of your responses, being a new MIP I have made some terrible decisions that have had no results and cost me lots of money, I could really kick myself I thought I had more sense!

However after a stern talking to from my dad last night (lol) he suggested BNI, so I have contacted my local group and am going next Wednesday. So.... giving advertising a wide berth and going for meeting people getting the word out there in person and trying to get referals (a very scary prospect)! Hope this works better, I am the impatient sort and didnt realise how difficult and time consuming practice promotion is.
Thanks again.
Julie

clegganator

Just remembered, my brother somehow advertised my stag do to all of my friends via facebook. One ad campagin I wish didn't work...